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The purpose of this research is so that project managers can use a systemic approach to prioritizing the risks of outsourcing including an understanding of the external factors that could affect the prioritization.

A survey was designed by the authors and distributed to 2,500 outsourcing professionals from different organizations and the hypotheses were tested using the data from these surveys. The logic for forming the hypothesis is discussed for each hypothesis and so are the demographics of the respondents

External factors such as the type of technology involved, type of market targeted, location of outsourcing and the amount of experience the outsourcing professional had, did affect the prioritization of the outsourcing risks. Furthermore, trends were identified among the ranking of the outsourcing risks.

One of the constraining factors of this research, as in the majority of empirical research initiatives, was the limited sample size, which could potentially affect the rating. An increased sample size could have also provided the researchers with a more detailed insight into the interrelationships between the various outsourcing risks.

For the first time, the outsourcing risks have been prioritized using a systemic approach. The systemic approach has been used in the financial industry while analyzing risk but the authors have applied it to prioritization of outsourcing risks. This includes understanding the interrelationships between the risks and also the effect that external factors can have on the prioritization of those risks.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the software outsourcing teams, namely, vendors, transfer effective knowledge to enhance team performance; it reports on a study of transactive memory system (TMS) theory and makes deep analyses and discussions about the influence of the cooperative behaviors of TMS on software outsourcing team’s performance under the framework of three behavioral characteristics dimensions – specialization, credibility and coordination.

This paper is an empirical study based on investigation interviews to 28 software outsourcing teams and data of questionnaire surveys on 124 software outsourcing teams; structural equation model is used to test the data we collected.

This paper finds that both credibility and coordination have a significantly positive impact on knowledge transfer and project success, whereas specialization has a significant negative impact on project success. The results of data analysis show that TMS is an effective coordination mechanism.

The conclusion of the study can help us understand the coordination mechanism of knowledge transfer in software outsourcing team and provide theoretical support and paradigm reference for vendors in China to accumulate knowledge and improve the success rate of projects in the context of software project development.

This study aims to examine how the role of peripheral knowledge changes along with the perspectives of vendor and client in inter-organizational IT outsourcing. To this end, this study tests the effects of the peripheral knowledge of vendors and clients on IT outsourcing performance under three different combinations of performance-assessing views from both parties.

To contrast the effects of the peripheral knowledge of vendors and clients based on their views, this study collects matching data on 107 projects from both parties. The survey method is adopted to measure the peripheral knowledge levels of vendors and clients and IT outsourcing success. The associations between peripheral knowledge and IT outsourcing performance are then assessed when the views match, cross and agree to a certain level.

The peripheral knowledge of vendors plays a more significant role than that of clients in most IT outsourcing cases. Moreover, the agreement between the peripheral knowledge of vendors and clients shows a moderating effect only when the performance is assessed by clients than by vendors.

This study contrasts the peripheral knowledge of vendors and clients by altering performance-assessing views in IT outsourcing. This study also rationalizes why the peripheral knowledge of vendors is more important than that of clients, as well as explains whose perspective is more significant when the performance is assessed.

The literature on software project management is extended into the broader domain of large‐scale IS management by studying enterprise‐wide system upgrade projects. In particular; examines the role that the intervention of project management practices (formal project methodologies and outsourcing) play in large and/or complex IS projects, which result in good project performance.

A survey instrument was completed by 449 information systems managers about a specific upgrade project. The primary analytical approach used was structural equation modeling (SEM).

It was found that neither project complexity nor project size are good indicators of meeting a project's target date. Large projects that adopted formal project management practices were more probable to meet the project target date. Projects with a high degree of complexity which involved outsourcing and adopted formal project management practices, were more likely to meet the project target date.

Clearly, the message to managers of IS projects is to establish a project methodology, especially in large, enterprise‐wide projects, and when some degree of outsourcing is required.

Future research should consider additional measures of performance such as cost, end‐user satisfaction and business value.

Much had been written in the literature about how large, complex IT projects have high failure rates. Our study provides conclusive evidence that, the greater the degree of methodology implementation, the greater the chance for meeting the project's target date. Prior to this research, this had not been explicitly shown in the research literature.

An increase in outsourcing of consultancy services has been observed during procurement and delivery of public-sector infrastructure projects. However, the incidence of project failure has continued unabated despite this shift by public-sector entities. Also, there appears to be limited literature focussed on seeking to provide the rationale governing the decision to outsource or insource consultancy services by public-sector organisations. The purpose of this study was to appraise the performance of public-sector projects in which consultancy services have been outsourced or insourced. These are the gaps which this study was undertaken to fill.

A grounded theory methodology (GTM) research design was adopted based on the nature of evidence sought and gathered from a Provincial Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (PDPWI) in South Africa. Data was obtained from a mixture of semi-structured interviews and project-specific documents spanning a five-year period and was analysed according to the procedures associated with GTM. Accordingly, open coding, axial coding and pattern matching were carried out at several intervals to develop categories and themes.

The findings of the study showed the absence of a structured approach within the PDPWI for facilitating decisions pertaining to outsourcing or insourcing consultancy services within construction projects. Furthermore, the study established that both approaches yielded similar results across all performance facets of cost, time and quality. In addition, a detailed insight into the steps required for the successful application of GTM in built environment research has been provided in the study.

Limited studies have been undertaken to compare the impact of either outsourced or insourced services on the organisational and project performance. This was the gap to which the study reported in this paper was undertaken to contribute.

The paper seeks to investigate the effects of psychological contract on control mechanisms in outsourced ISD projects, based on control theories and psychological contract theories.

The paper is a multiple case study involving five outsourced projects completed by one of the largest and most successful telecommunication vendors in China. The company was the client in three of the projects and the vendor in the other two.

Based on first‐hand observations by the first author over a two‐year period and follow‐up interviews, four scenarios of match and mismatch of psychological contract between the client and vendor are identified, labeled as mutual transaction, client vulnerable, vendor vulnerable, and mutual loyalty. Moreover, the effect of psychological contract in shaping organizational control and outsourcing outcomes in the four different scenarios is revealed. For example, mutual transaction was associated with an emphasis on outcome control by the client. In contrast, mutual loyalty was associated with more informal control (self‐control and clan control). Furthermore, in the cases of mismatch between the client's and vendor's psychological relationship, the client implemented more behavior control and encouraged self‐control by its partner.

This research is, to the best of the author's knowledge, one of the first attempts to bring together psychological contract theory and organizational control theory in the domain of IT offshore outsourcing research. It reveals the effect of psychological contract in shaping organizational control in the four different scenarios labeled as mutual transaction, client vulnerable, vendor vulnerable, and mutual loyalty.

After reading the case and answering the case assignments, students will be able to understand and explain the challenges and opportunities for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors and their subcontractors; understand and critically analyse the advantages and disadvantages of insourcing and outsourcing of engineering, procurement and construction in EPC projects; determine which situations merit insourcing or outsourcing within each of engineering, procurement and construction in EPC projects; understand and identify the competencies and qualifications that a subcontractor must possess if any EPC activity is outsourced to them; and develop a decision-making framework to determine which EPC activities must be kept in-house or outsourced in EPC projects.

In mid-March 2021, PetroSahand International Group, a leading EPC contractor specializing in the oil, gas and petrochemicals industries in Iran, encountered significant challenges with its subcontractors in engineering and construction. These issues resulted in widespread repercussions for the company, including project delays and mounting debts. At the peak of these crises, PetroSahand’s senior management embarked on a thorough examination of whether to insource or outsource various aspects of their operations, such as engineering, procurement and construction. Their objective was twofold: to prevent similar setbacks in future projects and to navigate existing projects with minimal disruption to the company’s reputation. To address this critical dilemma, PetroSahand enlisted the expertise of a consulting team from Sharif University of Technology. Comprising esteemed professors, graduates and students from one of Iran’s most respected institutions, this team undertook an exhaustive analysis of the insourcing versus outsourcing debate across EPC domains. Subsequently, they presented their comprehensive findings, thereby confronting PetroSahand’s senior management with a pivotal choice regarding the optimal approach for each activity.

The audience of this work is undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in project management courses, both fundamentals and advanced. In addition, this case helps senior managers of EPC contractors gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of insourcing or outsourcing different project activities.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science.

The production of a good or service requires that the supplier performs a wide range of activities. Many companies are trying to fit outsourcing with the dimensions of their organization. Outsourcing is increasingly being used among Iranian companies in the field of the electric power industry. Human resources are among the factors that consider outsourcing as an obstacle for their growth because staffs declare that the development of outsourcing is a serious threat for unemployment of them and ultimately expulsion from work. Thus, this study surveys the dynamic effects of human resources and work experience on outsourcing decisions. This paper aims to propose a model for dynamic strategic outsourcing focusing on human resource and work experience.

Presenting a model for strategic outsourcing can help organizations to resolve their outsourcing problems. The data needed for examining the dynamic impact of human resources and work experience on outsourcing have been compiled using library and field studies. The method used in this study is an integrated approach, so the model could consider the general effects of manpower and present a systematic view. After interviewing with experts in power industry, the causal relationships of the variables were determined, and a dynamic model based on the applications of the dynamic system was developed in VENSIM software. The research model will be completed in a three-year period (2016-2019) in the power industry of Iran.

For completing projects in an organization, cooperation between internal employees and external contractors is needed; thus, results based on both external contractors and internal staff have shown that outsourcing through working of a number of contractors will be more effective than frequent use of one contractor. On the other hand, improving the quality of projects could be done by training new employees using skilled and expert employees.

Existence of one-dimensional models (only with qualitative factors or only with quantitative factors) in the context of outsourcing in the past studies has prompted to study different types of factors together as a dynamic model. This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative model in the field of strategic outsourcing with emphasis on human resources and work experience. In the past studies, there was no way to formulate the qualitative factors, and they simply used the data from the organization, and the only formulation in their works was based on quantitative factors. But in this study, both factors with dynamic modeling have been formulated.

This study investigates the emphasis placed on different managerial roles by IT project managers. Six managerial roles were applied in this research: personnel leader, resource allocator, spokesman, entrepreneur, liaison and monitor. With changing business environments, the locus of value creation is no longer within the boundaries of a single firm, but occurs instead at the nexus of relationships between parties. With the growing importance of pooling knowledge resources, knowledge management will have to transcend organizational boundaries in exchanges such as IT outsourcing relationships. We would, therefore, expect to find differences in our two surveys.

Two surveys were conducted in Norway to investigate these management roles.

In the first survey, which focused on project management roles in internal IT projects, the respondents emphasized the personnel leader role significantly more than other managerial roles. In the second survey, which focused on project management roles in IT outsourcing projects, the respondents emphasized the spokesman role. The empirical results provide evidence that project managers in internal IT projects are more internally oriented than project managers in outsourcing projects.

Future research should also take into account culture and structure dimensions as well as the specific industry of the IT project.

This research concludes that project managers of both internal IT projects and outsourcing projects should be more externally oriented to meet future challenges.

The contingent approach to leadership roles is applied in this research paper.

This study aims to first identify influencing factors of outsourcing decisions in construction projects systematically and further to unravel the interactions of these influencing factors from a holistic perspective.

This study concerns the design and analysis of two-stage studies, where, at the first stage, a systematic literature review and 48 semi-structured interviews with senior practitioners in construction firms were conducted to identify influencing factors in outsourcing decisions in construction projects. At the second stage, the decision-making and trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method was employed to explore the interactions between influencing factors and pathways of outsourcing decisions.

Three focuses for outsourcing decisions are outlined, revealing that outsourcing restrictions, strategic needs and cost objectives need to be considered in outsourcing decisions. In addition, the finding contributes to the integration of transaction costs perspective and capability perspective by unravelling the mechanism of how different factors work together.

This study outlines 18 influencing factors and three sequential focuses for outsourcing decision-making, providing a clearer understanding of each factor’s contribution for decision-makers.

Most of the existing studies stressed the net effect of individual outsourcing factors from a single logic and paid little attention to their complex causal relationship. This study develops a holistic perspective of the influencing factors of outsourcing in construction projects by contending the overall knowledge of outsourcing and analyzing the causal relationship between them.